No Miracles, but No Defeat

The Los Angeles Unified School District will reshape curricula and hand-pick staffs at 10 low-achieving elementary schools in South-Central Los Angeles to show that all children can learn. Students at the targeted schools have scored poorly on standardized tests for 20 years. School officials have tried to raise achievement, but nothing has worked. Refusing to give up, district educators now will try an intensive teaching program, using methods that have worked at other schools. They expect no miracles, but they believe that over five years they can raise test scores to the national average.

The effective-schools program will intensify language development beginning at the pre-kindergarten level. In the primary grades, teachers will concentrate on speaking, writing, reading and listening skills on the premise that a poor command of language is a basic barrier to learning to think and other achievements.

Class sizes will be cut from 35 to 20 in kindergarten through second grade, and the school year will be extended by 11 days. Library staffs will be strengthened to broaden reading opportunities, and children who still need more help will attend Saturday classes and summer school.

Strong principals, who volunteer because they view the demands as a challenge rather than as a burden, will be selected this month. The selection of talented teachers, who choose to work in the rigorous environments and expect the children to succeed, will begin in June.

Parents will have a larger role. They will help select teachers and administrators. They will attend Saturday classes that teach them to reinforce what their children are learning. They will also sign a learning contract, pledging to require their children to go to school regularly and to work hard in the classroom and at home.

At this point there is just one hitch in the program. The teachers’ union, which says that it supports the concept, wants its members to refuse to participate until negotiations on a new contract are settled. If the union sticks to that position, it cannot avoid hurting children who most need help.

The school district is prepared to commit $5 million to an effort that is clearly designed to help the youngsters themselves. The administrators have no illusions about raising the district’s overall scores on a grand scale. Their focus is on the students and a demonstration that all children can learn. The teachers’ union commitment should be as strong. It is not a program that should be used as leverage in a pay dispute.